We use our critical and logical thinking skills all the time to assess, evaluate and make decisions about what to believe or how to proceed - even for the mundane things. The free online course "Logical and Critical Thinking" by the University of Auckland aims to help you develop and improve these skills. The course provides videos, articles, and assignments to explore key … [Read more...]
12 TED Talks for when you wish you could go back to college
Other people's interests or areas of research often seem more exciting than our own. That's why I've kept moving from one academic area to another throughout my academic life :-) Here is a playlist (compiled by "TED Talks") of talks by authors who inspire you to learn more about their topics. Paul Bloom: The origins of pleasure Why do we like an original painting … [Read more...]
Logic and Critical Thinking
This course provides an introduction to critical thinking, informal logic, and a small amount of formal logic. Its purpose is to provide you with the basic tools of analytical reasoning, which will give you a distinctive edge in a wide variety of careers and courses of study. While many university courses focus on the presentation of content knowledge, the emphasis here is on … [Read more...]
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature – A Free Course
This course is structured around three intertwined sets of topics: Happiness and Flourishing; Morality and Justice; and Political Legitimacy and Social Structures. Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature pairs central texts from Western philosophical tradition (including works by Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Rawls, and Nozick) with recent findings in … [Read more...]
Lectures on Great Social Thinkers – A Free Course
A series of lectures for second year anthropology students in the Department of Social Anthropology in Cambridge by Alan Macfarlane. 1. A map of social theories, 1000-2000 by Alan Macfarlane 2. The Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), Alan Macfarlane 3. Adam Smith (1723-1790) 4. Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) 5. Lecture on Karl Marx (1818-1883) 6. Lecture on Emile … [Read more...]
Moral Hysteria and Environmental Genocide – Free Lectures
Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, makes the case that we only really start worrying about social, economic and environmental problems when they are just about be solved by freedom. Examples include the Cuyahoga River fire that sparked the Clean Water Act and the FDA, DDT and drug protection through the FDA. Speaker: Stefan Molyneux … [Read more...]
Introduction to Philosophy – A Free Course
An introduction to Western Philosophy from a historical perspective. 1) What is Philosophy? 2) Presocratic Philosophy 3) Socrates & the Socratic Turn 4) Plato 5) Aristotle 1: Logic and Rational Thought 6) Aristotle 2: The Philosopher 7) Descartes 1: The Method of Doubt 8) Descartes 2: A Priori Knowledge and Mind/Body Dualism 9) Locke & … [Read more...]
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason – A Free Course
Lecture series examining Kant's Critique of Pure Reason delivered by Professor Dan Robinson. It remains a matter of controversy as to just what the central project of the Critique is, but surely one objective is to establish the character and range of objective knowledge in light of the limits of sense and reason. Lectures are intended to clarify the major claims advanced by … [Read more...]
Introduction to Political Philosophy – A Free Course
This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. Three broad themes that are central to understanding political life are focused upon: the polis experience (Plato, Aristotle), the sovereign state (Machiavelli, Hobbes), constitutional government (Locke), … [Read more...]
Great Big Ideas – A Free Course
The Floating University's first course, Great Big Ideas, is composed of 12 professionally produced video lectures ranging from 40-60 minutes in length. Below is a listing of every subject covered by Great Big Ideas, presented in the order suggested by the syllabus. You can take in the material in the same progression as students at Harvard, Yale, and Bard, or skip around to … [Read more...]
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